iRacing runs its 10-hour Petit Le Mans this weekend at Road Atlanta

iRacing published the details for this year’s Petit Le Mans on September 21. The event runs from September 25 to 27, puts the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship field on Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and is a ten-hour multi-class team race. [1]

Five slots, and one of them is the broadcast

There are five start times, and teams pick one rather than all running together. Timeslot one is Friday at 22:00 GMT (6:00 p.m. ET), then Saturday at 7:00 GMT (3:00 a.m. ET), Saturday at 12:00 GMT (8:00 a.m. ET), Saturday at 16:00 GMT (12:00 p.m. ET), and Sunday at 00:00 GMT, which is 8:00 p.m. ET on the Saturday. [1]

RACESPOT calls the top split of the Saturday 12:00 GMT slot, on iRacing.com/live. That is the only one being broadcast. [1]

Registration opens 60 minutes before each slot. Every session carries a 30-minute warmup and an eight-minute, two-lap qualifying session, and splits are set by iRating with up to 60 teams in each. [1]

One line worth reading twice

The announcement says the race “will be scheduled in the sim for October 3rd at 10:55 AM”. That is the date and time inside the simulation, set to match the real Petit Le Mans weekend, not the date you turn up. The event itself runs on the real-world weekend of September 25 to 27, which the same paragraph states and the special events calendar confirms. [1] [2]

What you need to enter

The event is open to members holding a Sports Car licence at Class C or higher, or Class D with a 4.0 Safety Rating. Teams need a minimum of two declared drivers and can carry up to sixteen. Fair share is enabled, so every declared driver has to meet a lap threshold relative to the team’s total for the entry to be legal at the finish. [1]

The incident limits are worth knowing before committing ten hours to it. Disqualification is set at 150 incident points per team. Stop-and-go penalties begin at 50 incidents and then repeat every 20 after that, until the limit is reached. [1]

The BoP numbers may still move

Every car in the field has been adjusted on fuel, weight or power. iRacing says the figures are published on its forum now but could be updated on the Wednesday before the event, so anyone building a strategy this week should check again after Wednesday rather than work from what is posted today. [1]

GTP/HY runs six cars: the Acura ARX-06, Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH, BMW M Hybrid V8 Evo, Cadillac V-Series.R, Ferrari 499P and Porsche 963. LMP2 is the Dallara P217 alone. GTD carries ten, from the Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 through to the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). The event is open setup with dynamic weather enabled. [1]

A busy week for Road Atlanta

The same circuit arrives in Le Mans Ultimate this week as part of the second US track pack, alongside the Streets of Long Beach, at $19.99. Studio 397 has not printed a calendar date of its own, saying only that the content lands in time for the real Petit Le Mans week; coverage has reported September 22, and as of today the newest released build is still V1.4.1.5 from September 15. [3]

That is a coincidence of timing rather than any connection between the two, but it does mean two different ways to drive Road Atlanta land inside the same seven days.